October 2, 2026 Case Summaries

The district court properly dismissed two counts of felony motor vehicular theft because the prosecution presented insufficient evidence of identification at the preliminary hearing.

In a hit and run prosecution, no one paid attention to the insurance charge, and in the resulting mess, the prosecution failed to prove either the insurance offense they charged or the insurance offense on which the jury returned a guilty verdict. The lessons to be learned here might be employed in other hit and run cases to eject an insurance charge at MJA.

The judge exceeded the authority granted by 18-1-1001 by precluding Zanella from having any contact with anyone under the age of eighteen who was not a witness or victim of the crimes.